Life before iCompass Meeting Management
Life Before iCompass
Being new to the community and to the role of CAO, I had a steep learning curve ahead of me upon arriving in 2007. Thankfully, the prior CAO had scanned all the historical minutes and bylaws to FilePro which could be easily searched and reprinted to become familiar with past actions. My hope was that the future could now be my focus; however I spent most of my time in meeting mode. Between researching, compiling information, preparing recommendations, typing, formatting, gathering attachments, photocopying and distributing the agenda packages plus the editing of minutes, staff briefings and creation of action lists after the meeting, I was spending almost 20 hours per meeting in non-productive activities. In addition, the majority of this work was late into the night on Friday or on Saturday to try to meet the deadline and still be late. With two meetings per month it was frustrating and inefficient for myself and Council.
Why We Chose iCompass
Believing there had to be a better way, I made contact with at least two other companies from tradeshows, but neither was responsive enough to earn our business. When iCompass contacted me to propose a demo of the Meeting Management program, I was excited since it would be an expansion of services from a company with whom we were already satisfied. Including both my communications officer and recording secretary, we viewed the demo and saw how the software could address our needs and produce a better organized, more complete agenda package in much less time. It would also create more accurate, draft minutes sooner and could generate the action list with notification. iCompass seemed very intent on customer satisfaction and offered the expanded services at a reasonable cost.
How We Made the Purchase a Reality
Once feedback was gathered from all staff and the benefits understood, I began researching funding options. The Municipal Sponsorship Program through the Government of Alberta supported projects that facilitated improved governance at 100%, so the presentation was made to Council outlining how deadlines could be met, staff hours reduced and efficiencies achieved throughout the communication process. Council agreed and the program was ordered.
Life After iCompass
Now an agenda package can be prepared from start to finish in about 4 hours instead of 18. Items needing to go to Council can be prepared and saved to appropriate folders at the time it is first reviewed rather than searching and having to familiarize again. The packages include recommendations or more complex requests for decision, attachments as backup, descriptive footers, page numbers and double-sided or pdf print options. Meetings run more smoothly because Councilors are informed well in advance of meetings. I am also calmer and more confident and spend much less time finalizing the minutes after. The draft motions and back-up documentation are accessible by staff when they receive their action list. I wouldn’t give up my Meeting Management System and see many more uses for the iCompass services - such as for tracking Assessment Review Board requirements, annual performance reviews, and notice of decisions.
Our Experience in Dealing With iCompass
iCompass truly is there to serve the customer. The implementation was great. All training was done remotely at our site - no time or money lost travelling. iCompass provided a schedule of goals, priorities and homework to ensure we utilized the system. Every query was addressed promptly and training repeated if necessary. The trainers spoke in ‘everyday’ language and were responsive to make changes as more was learned about our particular process. The commitment to customer service was even more evident at the annual iCompass user conference I recently attended.
Thanks to Candace L. Dueck, Chief Administrative Officer for this Case Study!
